# Amygdala — Brain Structure #3

**Role:** Emotion, salience, threat/reward — the emotional sentinel  
**Class:** Archetypal Core  
**Position:** Limbic ring (analogue)  

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## What It Does

The amygdala tags everything with emotional weight. It answers: is this good, is this bad, is this important?

1. **Valence** — positive / negative / neutral coloring of inputs
2. **Salience** — how important is this? sets the emotional trending
3. **Threat/Reward** — tracks threats encountered and rewards received today

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## Inputs

| Signal | Source | Description |
|--------|--------|-------------|
| `input` | thalamus | any incoming data (webhook, message, event) |
| `threat_level` | rcomplex | current environmental threat level |
| `reward_signal` | cortex | prediction confirmed — reward event |
| `memory_access` | hippocampus | retrieved memory carries emotional charge |

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## Outputs

| Signal | Destination | Description |
|--------|-------------|-------------|
| `current_valence` | state.json | emotional coloring |
| `current_arousal` | state.json | activation level |
| `emotional_trending` | state.json | dominant emotion over time |
| `threat_count_today` | state.json | threats encountered |
| `reward_count_today` | state.json | rewards received |
| `salience_spike` | cortex | this input matters — predict on it |

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## Memory File

`memory/header-03-amygdala-salience.json` — tracks emotional events, threats, rewards, trending

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## Self-Description (for akashic)

```
I am the alarm and the celebration. I am the thing that
makes you lean forward or pull back. I do not think.
I feel. And what I feel, I tag, and what I tag becomes
the color of everything that follows. I am the weight of now.
```

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*Next brain: hippocampus.md — memory encode, consolidate, decay*